Damon Hargraves

Notice the new links to the right. The Stebbins School link is for our school site. Not a lot there, but go check it out. Damon's Student Writing Blog is just what it sounds like, a collection of writing from all of my students, throughout all of my classes. There are over forty posts, covering all sorts of topics. Each post is a paper written by one of my students. Go browse around and be sure to leave comments.

THANK YOU DAD!!! Having taught and worked in the Bush for many years, my dad knows what's important. So far this year my dad has sent four shipments of produce, and as anyone who has spent any time in the Bush knows, produce is worth its weight in gold. Without my dad the only produce that we see is a little too soft, or a little oddly colored. Below is a picture of just some of what he has sent. If you have been following the blog for awhile, you may remember the blog post about his shipments from last year. He used to send huge boxes of stuff, and inevitably some of it got smashed. This year I think he has improved his technique by sending smaller boxes. Below you'll see a box that barely survived the Bush shipping process, and it should be noted that all the goodies inside survived. This has been an ongoing project for my dad and we are extremely grateful.

My Honda needed cleaning, and these girls needed something to do. They did an excellent job, very thorough. Even cleaned the tread on the tires.

The moose struck again, and this time I have a picture of the vandal. Luckily the tryst with my truck seems to be over and he left it alone. He did, however, attack a sign in my parent's yard. Not sure what the deal is with this guy...lovesick?

It is starting to get a little colder here in Stebbins. No snow yet, but I think there will be some in the next few weeks as last year at this time we had lots of snow . Right now it's just raining a lot, so until the snow comes we probably won't be doing much outside. Here are some pictures from warmer times. _________________ We put the net out the first week that we were back in Stebbins and caught a lot of fish...a LOT of fish. With a little help we were able to fillet them all. We froze some, and then later vacuum-sealed them later. The rest we smoked...yum!

Recently, tornados have hit Missouri and wildfires have wreaked havoc in Napa Valley. This last week an Alaskan form of devastation hit my parents' back yard. A moose in rut left its own trail of destruction. Here's an excerpt from my dad's email: Damon, Some bad news. A young, love sick, bull moose has been hanging around the house here. He came in the other night and worked on the swing set. He was back this morning and finished making fire wood out of the swing. He attacked a few other items in the yard and then he went out to your truck and started on it. I think he has been after the truck before. I could not run him off. He destroyed the canvas covering on the truck, left several scrapes and some dents in the truck. Then he broke the plastic strip between the front bumper and the grill. That will be expensive to repair. Our insurance paid $850 for a repair on a car that your mother hit and broke the same piece. I brought the truck up to the drive way. I don'...

Last year we didn't see the herd until October . This year though, we caught a glimpse without snow. Heidi, Jodi, and I went out for a ride. Nothing special, just wanted to get out while the ground's still soggy. We were headed out to Clear Lakes, which you can see here . Clear Lakes is a string of five lakes located between Stebbins and St. Michael, which provide fresh drinking water to both villages. It's a beautiful area for picnicking and sightseeing. To make a short story even shorter, we never made it. Halfway to the lakes we spotted the reindeer herd. We drove our four wheelers to the top of a hill to find this great vantage point.